24 December 2010

Fall of 2010 brought the DC direct to DVD line its very first sequel. Superman Batman: Apocalypse was a follow up to Public Enemies, and an adaptation of the 2nd story arc in the Superman Batman comic, Supergirl. True to the source, Supergirl has a big presence here, but unlike the comic, Batman doesn't.

Although Batman is important to the story, as the movie goes along, he becomes more and more of a supporting character giving Wonder Woman and Supergirl a bit more of the spotlight (along with Superman of course).

Still, Bats did get a couple of good sequences, even standing toe-to-toe with Darkseid before fading away to let Supergirl and Superman finish out the movie.

22 December 2010

Fortunately for Iron Man 2010 was surprisingly light for the superhero genre. The next few summers will be jam packed. But with very little in the way of competition Iron Man 2 wrangled $312 million, falling just shy of the original's take. While the movie was okay, it seemed that the movie was more of a place holder for Marvel buying time to introduce the rest of the team leading up to the ensemble Avengers movie. Perhaps, this should have been titled Avengers Part 0 rather than Iron Man 2.

Jonah Hex

DC countered Marvel's Iron Man with Jonah Hex. This lesser known wild west DC bounty hunter had the honor of following in the footsteps of Steel and Supergirl by ensuring the title character would not soon be returning to cinemas. The movie barely earned $10 million and pretty may have been the final straw for Megan Fox's short lived career. Seriously, Hex's appearance on the kid targeted Batman: The Brave and the Bold and his 10 minute animated short that were released this year were both way better than this pile of garbage.

Phantom

In June, SyFy finally aired its Phantom miniseries attempted to reinvigorate one of the classic superheroes. The presentation was okay, but it doesn't look like the miniseries did enough to earn the character a hoped or ongoing series.

The Last Airbender

M. Night Shyamalan's name being attached to The Last Airbender didn't do the film any favors. Honestly, this movie never had a chance of capturing the heart or epic scale of the animated series, but it wasn't nearly as bad as people said. Earning just $131 million, the chances of completing the trilogy are unlikely, but hey at least we will always have the series.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

In my opinion, the best offering of the summer, and possibly the year was the animated Batman: Under the Red Hood direct to video movie. The film adapted the comic arc that reintroduced presumed dead Jason Todd (the second Robin) to comic continuity. This movie was really well done and is currently at the top of my list of DC's animated films.

Jonah Hex

Attached to the Batman DtV was an animated Jonah Hex short. This little gem gave the sense that the character just might be able to carry a movie of his own, just not the version that actually got made.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

Pulling heavily from video games, the super powered Scott Pilgrim had to defeat seven evil X's to win the day and the girl. I knew going in that this movie was going to be different, but it truly was an original and very worth seeing. Unfortunately, its the kind of movie that is going to make pretentious teens feel like they are cool just because they saw it. It really is a shame it didn't do better in theaters. I haven't read the original graphic novels but the music, animations, and effects of the films were all spectacular and its hard for me to imagine this story in silent, still, black and white. The only thing I would have done is not cast George Michael. He was a real wuss.

21 December 2010

Will Superman the Man of Steel looks likely to actually get made, one must ask, "Why is making a good Superman movie so hard?" My enjoyment of Superman Returns seems to decrease with each viewing and by now I wonder if Tim Burton's Superman wouldn't have at least been a glorious disaster: